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In Awe of the Beautiful Goddess Kali (Wood Carving)

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This deftly carved ten-armed wood sculpture from the village of Thammampatty in Tamil Nadu, represents India's most extensively worshipped deity goddess Kali, also called Mahakali, or Smashana-Kali. Kali worship prevails in India from a shrine to a cremation ground, from a metropolitan city to a tribal hamlet, from a Brahmin's abode to a Shudra's mud-house and from a sage's hut to a dacoit's hideout.

The dark-complexioned deity with blood-shot eyes prefers her worship during dark nights inside deep dark chambers, inaccessible recesses of uninhabited deep forests or cremation grounds where the sound of cracking woods of a burning pyre alone breaks the silence of death. Kali bestows no bliss but her devotees believe all blissful in life is only her boon and she takes life as a sacrifice, dances around burning pyres and consumes fresh human blood but to her devotees, there is none so benevolent as her in giving life and all that makes it blissful. To them, she is the most auspicious spiritual presence around wherever they are.

Kali has been conceived as an awful appearance imparting destruction and as one who is usually gaunt, has fangs, wears garlands of skulls, feeds herself on fresh human blood and resides in cremation ground, but quite strangely, despite this ugly or non-aesthetic appearance, she has been the first love, not only of the violence-edict warriors, thieves, plunderers, violent tribes or charmers but also of poets and dramatists from all over the land and from all ages.

The earliest religious texts that prescribe her rituals, authorised iconography and form are mainly the Agni Purana, Garuda Purana, Devi Purana and Bhagavata Purana. In these 'puranas' Kali has been described as the goddess bringing success in war and eliminating enemies.

Like other female deities, she did not carry in her hands a rosary, lotus, pot or anything that promotes life. She also did not raise her hand to bless or to impart 'Abhaya'. Rather as the goddess of war, destruction and violence, she not only had multiple hands varying from four to twenty but also carried in them means and exploits of war. There prevails, with great unanimity, the view that she is Shiva's consort who dominates him. She is hence often represented as standing on Shiva's figure and Shiva is seen, as in this statue, as lying under her feet.

As prescribed in these 'Puranas', this statue of the goddess carries in her ten hands drawn sword, bow and arrow, sickle, mace, discus, shield, a bowl filled with blood, decollated human head, trident and conch. On her waist, she is wearing the girdle of alike-dismembered human hands and a garland of skulls on her breast. She has her blood-smeared tongue rolling out of her mouth.

The sculpture is no doubt spiritually charged, but the artist's vision of the deity is as much aesthetic. The lofty crown in silver provides a pleasing contrast. Her long face, sharp features, proportionate figure, amicably branched arms, fine fingers, slim elegant figure, widely open blood-shot eyes, befitting ornamentation and serenity on her face could as well be the features of Lakshmi, Psyche or Venus. The artist has skillfully packed in a single form the ever-conflicting elements - awe and beauty.

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.

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